In an accident? Quick, grab the phone

Good use case in the Washington Post for mobiles as a way to speed up diagnosis and accelerate treatment. 

Physicians use photos from patients' cellphones to deliver 'mobile health'

The other day I got hit on the head by a big chunk of timber in a garage - and having the ability to send a picture of the wound to the 911 operator who asked me to describe the cut ("I don't know, it's on the top of my head")  would make sense. 

It seems to be pretty accurate:

"The initial data is encouraging," Sikka said. The study will continue through October, but so far, he says, about 90 percent of diagnoses are accurate. Sikka said camera phones with at least three megapixels, autoflash and autofocus work well.

Sometimes, however, the picture quality is poor or the patient information is not specific enough. Fifty percent of the cases where the doctor did not make an accurate diagnosis involved images that Sikka said were too grainy.

So, when high quality cameras become ubiquitous, look for accuracy rates for remote diagnoses to get up towards 95% - pretty good considering the alternative.